Social Media eBook Published by Social Monitoring and Competitive Intelligence Company
November 5, 2013
Reading a book to understand social media might seem somewhat paradoxical. However, Digimind, a SaaS social media monitoring and competitive intelligence company, offers one that looks interesting. We came across Your Guide to Social Media Success in the white paper section of their resources area. The Successful Social Media Analyst’s Cookbook, is available as a free download on the Digimind Web site.
The ebook is Digimind’s latest release and it aims to share insights and best practices necessary for anyone to become a social media analyst. The strategy, geared toward social media analysts, is about listening and monitoring – rather than posting.
Their site states that the book guides the reader through the following:
? how to design and implement a winning social listening strategy
? how to choose the best social media monitoring tool
? how to measure results and report findings
Again, this is a free resource. It may be worth checking out if your company needs an overview on the topic. On the other hand, it may be that soon enough one will be able to learn this information in just a single tweet.
Megan Feil, November 05, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Invest in Social Media Sentiment Analysis to Avoid Brand Damage
November 2, 2013
Simon Creasey from Computer Weekly recently reported on the outcome of the latest Twitter firestorm in the article “Failure to Invest in Sentiment Analytics Could Lead to Brand Damage.”
According to the article, a disgruntled British Airways passenger decided use a paid-for promoted tweet to blast his complaints to thousands of Twitter followers. As you can imagine, the tweet went viral and was shared and re-shared until it received global coverage. While PR disasters are often unavoidable, businesses are developing social media sentiment analysis software to contain them.
The article concludes:
““Monitoring what people are saying about your products and industry can help you design your products and propositions for the future and in that sense Twitter acts as a great market research tool as well as a lead-generation tool,” says Sinclair.
“Similarly, if you monitor what people are saying about your brand it can also help you with customer service and PR. There are many examples of companies who have found themselves under social media attack. Failure to invest in these kinds of tools could easily result in significant damage to a company’s reputation and brand.”
These days, social media is ever expanding and it is impossible to keep track of everything being said about your company’s brand, products, and employees. In order to avoid PR disasters like the one that happened to British Airways, companies should invest in the latest sentiment analysis technologies.
Jasmine Ashton, November 02, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, Developer of Beyond Search
The Stats behind the Social Networks
October 11, 2013
Who uses what social network? Younger kids say Facebook is old school and have moved onto younger pastures and older folks tend to stick with the social media they become accustomed to. These are just general trends that I hear in passing, but for cold hard facts I turned to a Business Insider article entitled, “A Primer On Social Media Demographics.”
BI Intelligence conducted a report that broke down the various demographics about who uses what social network. The main purpose of the report was to provide companies with data for them to target consumers:
“Being able to identify the demographics of social media audiences at a granular level is the basis for all targeted marketing and messaging. The report also spotlights the opportunities that lie ahead for each social network, how demographics affect usage patterns, and why some platforms are better for brands than others.”
The numbers are quite interesting. Facebook still remains the standard for most users, especially with a surprising 86% outside the US. Instagram and Pinterest are female driven networks, while men prefer LinkedIn and Google+. Twitter remains mostly for the younger folks, as does Tumblr. Then there are these people from Marketing Land: “Who Are The 15 Percent Of Adults Who Do Not Use The Internet?” The numbers dwindle down to 38 million people who do not use the Internet and they are people in the over 65 range with less education and money. The reasons are that many people in this age group claim not to need it or find it difficult to learn. Also they are paranoid about hackers and rely on friends and family to do the surfing for them. Such thoughts are relics of the past and are annoying to marketers. I will say, though, I will not sign up for paperless billing, so maybe I am a relic.
Whitney Grace, October 11, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Changes in the Social Media Monitoring Field
October 11, 2013
A recent move by social media monitoring firm DataSift has Business2Community contemplating “The Stratification of Social Media Listening.” DataSift is now working with Tumblr to distribute that site’s content to subscribers, and writer Mike Moran takes the occasion to discuss ways social media monitoring has changed since he began working in the field five years ago. At that time, he says, it was all about crisis management, and SalesForce’s Radian6 was a central player. Moran writes:
“Salesforce’s purchase of Radian6 is still the biggest deal ever in this business. But the Radian6 purchase was the last gasp of the fully integrated software stacks in social listening. Top to bottom, you bought it all from one vendor. Radian6 crawled the blogs, screen-scraped the message boards, contracted with Twitter for the firehose. Radian6 analyzed the data. Radian6 presented the dashboard of streaming messages and the dashboard that aggregated the metrics.”
Lately though, Moran tells us, media monitoring has been moving away from the centralized to the stratified. Companies now have the option of straying from their Radian6 (or similar) structure to embrace other tools, like Tableau for their analytics dashboard, or Clarabridge or Lexalytics for text analytics. He expounds:
“Which brings us to today’s DataSift-Tumblr announcement. Why should you care? Because this stratification of social media listening is truly allowing the best solutions to be brought together out of component parts. Cloud computing allows us to quickly and cheaply cobble together these pieces into what our clients really need.”
Moran goes on to note that this departure from the integrated stack opens a myriad of possible advantages. Off-the-shelf solutions are no longer enough to stay competitive, he insists; to excel in social media monitoring now calls for a customized approach. That sounds like a lot of work to me. Organizations should not overlook the cost of added hours when considering their options.
Cynthia Murrell, October 11, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Clarabridge Obtains a Stunning 80 Million Dollars in Funding
October 6, 2013
The increased use of social media over the past decade has led many companies to pay closer attention to customer feedback for fear of having harsh criticisms plastered all over their Facebook page and Twitter feed. In order to get a better understanding of what customers are saying, according to the recent VentureBeat article “Clarabridge Scores $80M to Evolve Customer Experience Management”, more and more businesses are investing in customer experience management software provided by Clarabridge.
In addition to obtaining $80 million in equity funding, the article states:
“That’s on top of a successful three-year period in which the company saw 150 percent revenue growth and recurring revenue growth of more than 250 percent. Clarabridge’s platform helps businesses act on what their customers are saying about them (the Voice of the Customer, in industry terms) across a wide variety of sources. It also helps organizations pay attention to what their employees are saying, which typically leads to better customer service.”
Large retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Dell have already bought the software and more are likely to follow their lead. However, we think its a tall order to expect Clarabridge to generate half a billion in revenues right out of the gate.
Jasmine Ashton, October 06, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Be Wise and Do Not Ignore Social Media
September 30, 2013
Half the time when I speak with a customer service representative they are either automated or come from a foreign country where their English speaking skills are less than adequate. My most recent experience involved Priceline.com and a bull-headed rep somewhere in Asia. Three hours later I won, he lost. You can be sure I wrote about my experience on Twitter and how poorly I was treated. Sameer Nori started working at Attivio this year and in his blog post, “360 Degree View Of The Customer-Broken Promise Or Technology Limitation?” he takes a look at how companies are constantly searching for a business intelligence solution that allows them to monitor all aspects of their information.
This directly relates to customer service, because not all companies are watching customer feedback on social networks. People flock to social media networks to complain, which is then instantly broadcasted to thousands if not millions. It is the quickest and easiest way to ruin a reputation. What do you do? Attivio says:
“Customers are talking about your products and their experiences with your brand and you need to be prepared with the right information about them at the right time. I’m very happy to report that Attivio is being used at some of the largest companies in the world to reduce customer churn and increase customer satisfaction by bringing together structured data, unstructured data and unstructured content. The promise of the 360 degree view of the customer can finally be realized through Attivio’s unified information access platform!”
A piece of advice quickly turns into a big data product pitch. Still, this is how big data can be used. It can monitor all instances of when a company is mentioned on social networks and analyze the data for companies to implement better customer service policies.
Whitney Grace, September 30, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
LinkedIn Pins Hopes on Economic Graph
September 29, 2013
Writer Rachel King at ZDNet shares some of LinkedIn’s strategy for the future in, “LinkedIn’s Long-Term Plan? Build the ‘World’s First Economic Graph,’ Says CEO.” The article describes this vision, which does sound interesting. We here at Beyond Search, though, could wish for more emphasis on search functionality, which seems to be a secondary issue for the professional networking site. Well, maybe tertiary.
King writes that LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner spoke about the company’s plans at TechCrunch Disrupt 2013. We learn from the article:
“Weiner described that LinkedIn’s current value lies its ‘professional graph,’ which explained maps the world’s professional connections through profiles and job listings. The long-term vision for the next decade, he continued, is to develop the world’s first ‘economic graph,’ or mapping the global economy digitally. ‘Increasingly, jobs are fragmented. They’re not always about full-time,’ Weiner reflected. ‘We’d like there to be a profile for every company in the world.’ . . .
“When asked by TechCrunch’s Eric Eldon about potential competitors (notably Facebook, Salesforce.com and Google) in regards to this economic graph, Weiner avoided dropping any names. But he responded that there is ‘no company right now that has the professional focus that we do.'”
Yes, LinkedIn’s focus on the professional realm is indeed what sets it apart. It is also moving into a pre-professional space, if you will, with its new university pages. The project, combined with an age limit that has been lowered to 13, aims to help students find a college that is right for them. The hope is that students who use that feature will stick with LinkedIn throughout their career. Some may complain that lowering the age limit diminishes the professionalism of the site. However, this tactic could help ensure LinkedIn’s relevance well into the future.
Cynthia Murrell, September 29, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Facebook and Google Plus Face Off in the Ring
September 7, 2013
Which social media platform is better? Google Plus and Facebook each have their pros and cons, but for a serious comparison read the article from Makeuseof.com: “The Final Showdown: Google Plus Vs. Facebook, Which One Is Really The Best?” Each social media platform is broken down into the basic functions and like an elementary school open response question they compare and contrast. A tally score is kept.
User interface goes to Google Plus, because it is slicker and looks like it was made in 2013. Facebook, by a small amount, wins the profile challenge with its Timeline function. The chat feature contest ends in a draw. Google Plus takes the lead with its circles when it comes to managing friends, plus it scores another point for its easy updating ability. Both platforms offer good ways to upload photo albums, but Google Plus seems to be easier to use.
Google fails, though, when it comes to privacy settings. We all know that Google gathers data on all its users, but managing the social networking aspect is hidden somewhere in the account settings. Facebook at least has its privacy out in the open.
The end result is that Google Plus is the winner, but:
“The main reason most of us still prefer Facebook is simple: it’s where people are. Why are people there? Probably because it was first. This is a recursive argument, because if we all move to Google+, that’s where people will be. But it’s not easy, and in the mean time, if you truly want to stay updated and have an audience, you will understandably stick to Facebook (I know I do).”
It all comes down to a matter of preference again. Does not everything?
Whitney Grace, September 07, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
LinkedIn: Content but Lost?
September 6, 2013
I read “All LinkedIn with Nowhere to Go.” The write up discusses the “glorified résumé distribution service.” I am not looking for a job. As I race towards 70 years of age, I just don’t have the stamina to keep up with the wheel reinventing younger wizards. However, lots of people do use LinkedIn. I know because I get invitations to connect with folks whom I don’t know. I also get endorsement about skills which surprise me. After working at Booz, Allen & Hamilton, I have seen some spectacular résumés only loosely anchored in reality.
The author of the write up states:
This frenetic networking-by-vague-association has bred a mordant skepticism among some users of the site. Scott Monty, head of social media for the Ford Motor Company, includes a disclaimer in the first line of his LinkedIn bio that, in any other context, would be a hilarious redundancy: “Note: I make connections only with people whom I have met.” It’s an Escher staircase masquerading as a career ladder.
And this from Ford whose in car automation system is almost as amazing as some of the LinkedIn services.
The article tackles “influencers” on LinkedIn as well:
Still, there’s a distinctly perfunctory quality to the offerings of the charmed circle of “influencers.” They often simply repost things on LinkedIn that they’ve written (or had ghostwritten, in some cases) for their personal sites. Their advice—on LinkedIn, “thoughts” almost always equal “advice”—ranges from the semi practical (embrace three digital media trends; get all of your employees on social media) to the lofty (be on a mission that doesn’t suck; search for a noble purpose) to the downright confusing (how to create time; how do careers really work?). The worst of the bunch reads like management-speak Mad Libs, such as this bit of gobbledygook about the career success ladder: “Failure to make a decision is often worse than making the wrong one. This ability is developed and honed over time based on both successes and failures,” writes one thought leader, who includes a complicated chart that is in no way ladder-like. Cue the vacuous, grammar-challenged sloganeering: “High-level thinking, problem-solving and critical decision-making is the cornerstone of long-term success.”
Then there is the notion of “thought leadership.” The author asserts:
Thanks to such fast-and-louche appropriations of the mantle of thought leadership, even its apostles are denouncing the fast-multiplying apostasies that dilute the essence of the one true faith. “In only 15 years we’ve managed to dumb down the idea of thought leadership from someone who has changed their area of business to someone who can create a marketing plan that implants the idea that they are a thought leader,” wrote sales guru Paul McCord in 2009. “When everybody’s one, nobody is one.”
Okay. I do want to point out a couple of characteristics I have noticed about LinkedIn.
First, I get spam of various sorts. The most egregious comes from recruiters who view me as a candidate for a job. Yo, recruiters! What part of my being almost 70 and residing in rural Kentucky is unknown to you? I know that LinkedIn is selling my email to these folks who just spam away. Profitable? Probably. Annoying? You bet.
Second, LinkedIn owns Slideshare. I don’t see much integration of the content on LinkedIn with the content on Slideshare. For example, the person who manages my LinkedIn presence posts the titles of my for-fee articles. We do this to see if any LinkedIn users follow up. Since we added this “content” a couple of years ago, we have received exactly zero inquiries about a full text copy. Furthermore, the input form for the content does not make it possible to list the articles in reverse chronological order. Careless? Nah. I think LinkedIn is just snagging content in the hopes that it will be useful in the future. But why not integrate the content from the two services so a person could snap between the two services, find related content, or better yet, find other LinkedIn folks who have written about a related topic? On a related note, we learned yesterday that for certain queries from behind our firewall, Slideshare would not process the query. We solved the problem by using a different Internet service and registering for a new account. Filtering? Sure seems like it to the law librarian and professional tech journalist who watched the LinkedIn system block my queries. Anomaly? Sure, why not say that?
Third, I find the entire idea of sending me emails from folks I don’t know interesting. The purpose is to get me to click a link and then try to figure out how to get past the different messages displayed to me. I usually just delete the LinkedIn emails. Too much hassle. I wonder if the youngsters whom LinkedIn is now chasing as “members” will get into the LinkedIn swimming pool. Even Facebook is less annoying says the gosling who manages my LinkedIn account.
Fourth, the content in the groups is pretty darned amazing. I see folks asking questions which can be answered via a Google or Yandex query. More interesting are the long dissertations about some topics by folks who want to show off their knowledge. I have instructed the analyst who looks at the LinkedIn content to post only questions in response to the most wacky write ups. Remarkably some people try to answer my questions. Fascinating and usually uninformed are the “answers.”
With LinkedIn chasing more money via a stock offering, I look forward to more bobbing and ducking. See “Linked In Cashing In: Social Network to Raise $1 B in Share Offering as Stock Flies High.”
In the meantime, LinkedIn will continue to make my “pulse” beat more rapidly. (See “LinkedIn’s Acquisitions of Pulse Promotes Role of Game Changer.” Wait, wait. I meant make my pulse beat more “vapidly.”
Stephen E Arnold, September 6, 2013
Social Media Can Prevent Death
September 1, 2013
In addition to exercise and therapy, there might be another way to lower the suicide rate among veterans. Benton Pena takes a look at how, “Monitoring Amicable Media To Cut A Troops Self-Murder Rate.” Big data specialists believe that by watching veterans’ amicable social media for despondency signs they will be able to intervene at the proper moment. Using analytics, the specialists would inspect thousands of posts for key terms and other red flags. Dubbed the Durkheim Project, the goal is to build algorithms to track the phrases or words that are predictive of suicide.
The way veterans use social media is a direct reflection of their attitude. It corresponds with doctors’ notes about how veterans behave, such as a healthy patient focusing on hygiene while an unhealthy one will segway the conversation onto restlessness and fears. Monitoring social media over time paints a picture of the patient’s mood.
“This kind of sundry language, as good as a shorthand used on amicable media, can be intensely severe to analyze, pronounced Sid Probstein, a arch record officer for Attivio, that is obliged for that analysis. How those phrases change over time can also be a warning sign, Probstein said, so a outrageous volume of information has to be collected from content messages, Twitter, Facebook, and other amicable media outlets and analyzed.”
Social media has become a cache all of confessions and random thoughts, sort of like journals from the days of old. Unlike private journals, which were usually kept hidden, social media can be monitored and analyzed instantly. Preventing veteran suicides is important to post-war recovery and the work by the Durkheim Projects may indeed contribute to the saving of lives.
Whitney Grace, September 01, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
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